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Screening will start at 12:00 Noon US EDT; 18:00 Europe; 17:00 UK; 19:00 Palestine, running time, 109 minutes, 2008, English subtitles. The film screening will be followed by discussion with audience.
About the Film
Salt of the Sea is about a young woman Soraya, who was born in Brooklyn in a working class community of Palestinian refugees. When she discovers that her grandfather’s savings were frozen in a bank account in Jaffa when he was exiled in 1948, she fulfills her life-long dream of “returning” to Palestine to reclaim what is hers. Once there, slowly she is taken apart by the reality around her and is forced to confront her own anger. She meets Emad, a young Palestinian whose ambition, contrary to hers, is to leave forever. Tired of the constraints that dictate their lives, they know in order to be free, they must take things into their own hands, even if it’s illegal. In this quest for life, we follow their trail through remains of Palestine. This prize winning film is the debut feature length work from Annemarie Jacir (Like Twenty Impossibles). it premiered at Cannes to critical acclaim. Featuring Palestinian poet Suheir Hammad and emerging Palestinian star Saleh Bakri in their first lead roles, Jacir’s film also picked up twelve international awards and was theatrically released in Europe, the US, and Asia.
About the Director
Annmarie Jacir is a Palestinian filmmaker and founder of Philistine Films to support new voices and to offer a platform for the emerging independent Arab film scene. She was born in Bethlehem and lives in Jordan. In 2007, Jacir shot the first feature film by a Palestinian woman director, the acclaimed Salt of this Sea, the story of a working-class American woman whose parents were Palestinian refugees, making her first return to her family's homeland. Her second work to debut in Cannes Film Festival, Salt of this Sea, went on to win the FIPRESCI Critics Award, and garnered fourteen other international awards including Best Film in Milan. The film was Palestine's submission to the 81st Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and received many other awards and nominations including winning the Muhr Arab Award for Best Screenplay at the Dubai International Film Festival, a Cinema in Motion award at the 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival and a FIPRESCI award. Salt of this Sea starred poet Suheir Hammad alongside Saleh Bakri in his first role on screen. Her latest feature Palestine 36 is her most ambitious project to date.